02.04.22 Faculty Excellence Awards

01. PURPOSE

01.01             The purpose of this policy is to establish an awards system for recognizing College of Health Professions' faculty excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service, and to establish a process for selecting the awards.

02. POLICY

02.01             It is the belief of the administration of the College of Health Professions that outstanding individual faculty achievements in the areas of Teaching, Research, and Service should be recognized and rewarded. Up to twelve Faculty Excellence awards may be given annually to recognize excellence in Teaching, Research or Service: three at the Associate/Professor rank, three at the Assistant/Lecturer rank, three at the Clinical Associate/Professor rank and Associate/Professor of Practice rank, and three at the Clinical Assistant/Lecturer rank and Assistant/Professor of Practice and Lecturer rank. Each award, at a minimum, will consist of a plaque or other suitable award which will be presented to the recipient. All faculty and administrators who maintain 50% FTE or more for the calendar year nominated, are eligible. Emergency hires and those not employed for the calendar year nominated, and faculty and administrators who received an award in the preceding two years are not eligible in the same category.

03. PROCEDURE

03.01             Faculty Excellence Committee: The Dean will appoint the committee at the beginning of the fall semester of each academic year. The committee will consist of faculty who represent a broad cross-section of the College of Health Professions with one representative per represented program.

03.02             Nominations

a.         The committee chair will request the Dean's office distribute nomination forms during February of each year. Nomination forms will be sent to all departments and available in student areas, and department or program offices. The Dean will send an email to all College of Health Professions' faculty and staff announcing the nomination process. Each department will notify students.

b.        Students may nominate faculty for the Teaching category only. Faculty may nominate for Teaching, Research, and Service. Self-nominations are acceptable.

c.         The nomination form will include a deadline established by the committee.

d.        Forms may be submitted electronically or as a paper version. A box will be placed in the Dean's Office in San Marcos, in the School of Nursing Admission's Office in Round Rock and in the Administration Office in Round Rock to collect written nominations. Digital nominations can be submitted electronically to the Dean's Office.

e.         Upon reaching the deadline, all nominations, electronic and on paper, will be collected by the Dean's office and forwarded to the chair of the Faculty Excellence Committee.

f.         Each nominated faculty member will be notified by the chair of the CHP Faculty Excellence Award Committee. The chair will not share the individual nominations with each nominee.

            03.03             Criteria

a.         Awards are based on commitment and activity, internal and external recognition and impact or significance of endeavors. These are aligned with the criteria for the University's awards. See the rubric in Attachment A.

b.        Each nominee who chooses to participate will submit digital supporting documents to the Faculty Excellence Awards site and, by doing so, grants approval to the Faculty Excellence Committee to review his/her documents. All documents will be confidential and only available to the committee.

03.04             Documentation (Nomination portfolios that do not conform to the documentation outlined will not be considered)

a.         Candidates must submit annual evaluation information for the year of nomination (January through December) from Digital Measures/Faculty Qualifications.

b.        Only documentation covering work while serving at Texas State will be considered.

c.         Only portions of the Annual Evaluation relevant to the award category will be used.

d.        Examples of documentation showing commitment and activity, internal and external recognition and impact or significance of endeavors over the year is as follows:

             1)        For all categories:

a.         A narrative to explain accomplishments in the award category and their contribution to student learning. This may include a statement of personal goals or philosophy in award category and a statement that ties together activities. It should not exceed two, double-spaced pages.

b.        Letters or statements to support accomplishments. These can be either internal and or external and should not exceed three in number.

                                                2)        For teaching:

a.         Examples of innovative teaching methods, materials, technology use; number of courses taught and number of students in each course; student evaluations to include overall scores and examples of written comments; if not the instructor of record, a description of activities employed, responsibilities, and student outcomes; sample syllabi; peer evaluations; any other material that supports nomination.

                                                3)        For research:

a.         Published, peer reviewed articles; manuscripts submitted; published books; published versus submitted will be considered and must be clearly delineated; if multiple authors, contributions of nominee; grant applications/funded research; presentations at professional conferences; descriptions of research projects in progress; membership on peer review panels; and/or examples of assistance provided to colleagues/students for research projects; any other material that supports nomination.

                                                4)        For service:

a.         Membership or leadership positions on department, college, university committees (differentiate membership versus leadership positions); participation or leadership positions on professional organization committees and/or community service activities; any other material that supports nomination.

            03.05             CHP Faculty Excellence Award Committee Recommendations

a.         Upon completion of committee review, the committee chair will submit the recommendations to the Dean of the College who will announce the award recipients at the Annual College of Health Professions Dean's Meeting held at the beginning of the fall semester.

            03.06             Dean’s Office Responsibilities

a.         Announce nomination process to all college faculty, staff and students.

b.        Collect nominations.

c.         Order plaques or other suitable awards.

            03.07             University Presidential Awards

a.         Recipients of the College of Health Professions Faculty Excellence Awards are encouraged to apply for the University Presidential Awards in their rank and award area.